Iranian Revolutionary Guards (file)
Iranian Revolutionary Guards (file)Reuters

Jordanian security forces arrested a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards planning attacks in Jordan, foiling what they said was the most serious terror plot in the country in the past decade, state media revealed Monday.

According to the Al Rai newspaper, the suspect - who belonged to the Guards' elite Qods Force and is a dual Iraqi-Norwegian national - was arrested two weeks ago in the city of Jerash, north of the capital Amman, in possession of 45 kilograms of high explosives.

He had been smuggled in to Jordan via the Syrian border, security sources said.

The report was published just a few hours before the suspect is due to appear before a military court in Amman.

A security source told Al Rai that had the attack been carried out it would have been the most serious terrorist attack in Jordan in 10 years, both in terms of the amount and quality of the explosives.

The precise target of the planned attack was not revealed in the report, but the Hashemite Kingdom would in theory present a range of targets for the Islamic Republic of Iran. Jordan has good relations with both Israel and the Sunni Arab gulf states - sworn enemies of the Iranian Shia Islamist regime - and is currently hosting Syrian opposition leaders, including rebels fighting the pro-Iranian Assad regime.

It is just the latest in a series of terrorist plots by the Qods Force over the past several years, most of which have focused on Jewish or Israeli targets.

Iranian agents, often working together with Hezbollah terrorists, have attempted to attack Israeli and Jewish targets in Thailand, Georgia, Azerbaijan and India, among other places. Most of the attacks have been foiled in time or were botched by the terrorists, although a bomb attack in Delhi in 2012 injured the wife of an Israel diplomat.

Iran is also suspected of involvement in the deadly 2012 bombing of an Israeli tour bus in Burgas, Bulgaria.